Rebel Wilson Will Appeal Decision To Cut Defamation Payout

Aussie actress Rebel Wilson remained silent when a court decision yesterday slashed her record breaking defamation payout from Bauer media from a whopping $4.5 million down to $600,000.

But in the last few hours she’s spoken her mind on twitter, going on a rant about the loss and saying that she will be taking the decision back to the courtroom.

“I was hoping the Court of Appeal in Australia would deliver a reasonable judgement today…ummmmm seeing as that HAS CLEARLY NOT happened I look forward to appealing! There’s some really bizarre things in there guys that are so obviously challengeable,” wrote Wilson.

I was hoping the Court of Appeal in Australia would deliver a reasonable judgement today....ummmmm seeing as that HAS CLEARLY NOT happened I look forward to appealing! There’s some really bizarre things in there guys that are so obviously challengeable!

Everybody knows I lost money after those maliciously defamatory articles were printed about me by @bauermedia in 2015. The learned trial judge and Australian jury on the case who heard all the evidence clearly agreed.

She went on further to say that the Court of Appeal has deprived the less fortunate Australians that she was going to help with the millions of dollars.

“That’s now $4 million less going to less fortunate Australians and leaves a billionaire corporation, proven guilty of malicious defamation, being able to get away with their seriously harmful acts for a very low pay day! Clearly not fair. Come on Australia.”

Was it wrong of me to pledge that the money received from the case was going to good causes?? To me, after working tirelessly day and night to rebuild my career, I thought it was the right thing to do.

That’s now $4 million less going to less fortunate Australians and leaves a billionaire corporation, proven guilty of malicious defamation, being able to get away with their seriously harmful acts for a very low pay day! Clearly not fair. Come on Australia 🇦🇺

The Hollywood star was not present when the court handed down the judgement in Melbourne on Thursday, saying that Rebel hadn’t sufficiently proven that Woman’s Day magazine had cost her work after claiming that Rebel was a serial liar.

Entertainment reporter Peter Ford has told 96FM's Hour of Power hosts Kyle and Jackie O that it was an understandable decision because Rebel had no smoking gun to prove that she had missed out on Hollywood movies as a result of the defamation.

“She was given 4-and-a-half million bucks, and then as a result of Bauer Media objecting to that and appealing it, yesterday the judge came back and said well we actually agree you can’t prove what you’re saying,” said Mr Ford.

“See she’s saying she missed out on three major Hollywood movies which were going to pay me about 5 million bucks each but she couldn’t prove it. There was no smoking gun, she didn’t have like a leaked email that said ‘let’s ditch her because of that woman’s day story’.”

Rebel was originally awarded a record $650,000 in general damages and $3,917,472 in special damages that prompted an immediate appeal from Bauer Media. The Court of Appeal yesterday reduced the general damages payout to $600,000 and set aside the special damages amount finding it had been wrongly awarded.

And now it seems that Rebel will be taking a further appeal in this lawsuit and take the decision to the High Court. Peter Ford told Kyle and Jackie O that he thinks Rebel just needs to “cut her losses” and move on.

“You’ve got to cut your losses, and you’ve also got to be able to prove stuff,” he said. “You know she could walk in there and say ‘oh Prince William was going to marry me and I was going to walk on the moon’. You can say anything you want but unless you’ve got something to prove it then it’s just all kind of baseless.”